For the sake of argument, let’s assume you represent a smallish company which has established itself to some degree and you’re looking to bring on new developers - and by “new developers”, I mean developers who care about the work they produce (i.e. hackers). With so much demand for these developers, how do you compete?

It should come as no surprise that the first thing you must do is to understand how developers think. We’re a different lot. We don’t stop working just because we’ve left the office; we hack on our own projects, we do side work for more experience, and we attend user groups and contribute back to our technical communities. We live and breathe technology; it’s who we are. Understand this, and you’re halfway there. Learn to encourage this in us, and you’re home free.

Attracting developer interest really isn’t hard, it just requires putting your name and support behind what we’re interested in. Here’s just a sample of things you can do: